Sexy Sarah Palin needs get ugly to win in 2012

Thursday, March 5. If Sarah Palin is seriously considering a run for the presidency in 2012, she might want to consider putting on a little less makeup, wearing uglier clothes and generally dulling down her good looks. According to a new study in the Journal of Experimental Psychology while the 45-year-old former beauty queen's appearance is a hit with magazine editors and on Youtube (see below) they don't go down so well with voters.

The study involved 133 undergraduates, half of whom were asked to write about Palin's appearance and the other half about her competence. According to Tom Jacobs, summarising the study for Miller-McCune, "Those who wrote about Palin's appearance were more positive in their assessments than those who assessed her qualities as a person. But they rated her far lower in terms of competence, intelligence and capability, and were far less likely to indicate they planned to vote for the McCain-Palin ticket."

Jacobs also notes that Palin's shaky grasp of the issues and her faltering interview performances on the campaign trail probably didn't help her bid for the vice presidency either, but he reports that the author of the study, Nathan Heflick, is concerned that being seen as sexually attractive harms a woman's chances of "real world success".

"It was the effect her [Palin's] appearance had on their perception of her competence and humanity," Heflick said. "Those variables made people less likely to vote for her."

For the Los Angeles Times, Andrew Malcom has a few suggestions. "For any hope of success in 2012 or beyond, the 45-year-old governor needs to whack off that hair, pork up a bit and get some cheap, baggy pantsuits over at the Wasilla Wal-Mart. And instead of that come-on wink that many thought they liked, she'd do well to develop an uncontrollable facial twitch," he says. "Also lose the kids, stop smiling, get angrier, so she can look more congressional. That's been working real well for Republicans the last two elections."

FIRST POSTED MARCH 5, 2009